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Objective: To develop a reliable and valid treatment outcome checklist for the measurement of ADHD treatment for children in a clinical setting., Material and Method: The behavior indicators to assess the treatment outcomes of ADHD children were researched and developed by using multi-informants perspectives. The present study involved a qualitative study and two rounds of the Modified Delphi Techniques. In the first process, 11 parents/guardians of ADHD children aged 6 to 18 years were given a semi-structured interview on their expectation towards treatment outcomes at the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Rajanagarindra Institute. Items from literature reviews were also added before the first and second round evaluations using the Delphi by five different expert fields (six experts from each field). Final indicators from expert consensus were assessed from 180 ADHD patients, which were assessed by three child and adolescent psychiatrists. All items were analyzed for internal coefficient reliability. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) was used to calculate the cut off score., Results: Thirteen indicators were assessed by experts as good content validity for clinical outcomes of ADHD treatment with the reliability of 0.60. The optimal cut-off point was 4 (sensitivity: 0.80; specificity: 0.76). The Area under curve (AUC) of total score was considered at a good level (0.83)., Conclusion: The ADHD clinical outcome checklist with 13 items has shown good validity and fair reliability. It can be a useful tool for ADHD treatment outcome assessment in clinical setting.

Background: Conscripts are a vulnerable population group for HIV infection. Their serostatus has been monitored in Thailand as part of the national sentinel surveillance since 1997. Given the nature of the military environment, an innovative program is needed to promote safe sex to reduce the rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV., Objective: The present study proposed to evaluate the program of "Squad Leader Mentors through Short Message Services on Mobile Phones" in improving the required knowledge, attitudes, and the safe sex practice among conscript groups., Material and Method: A quasi-experimental design was applied in separate areas. The subjects were recruited by multistage sampling techniques. One hundred forty eight conscripts from the Lop Buri Military District were randomly selected to be the study group, and 114 conscripts from the Sara Buri Military District were the control group. The study and control groups were matched for background characteristics. The changes in knowledge, attitudes, and safe sex practice were measured by pre- and post-test questionnaires over a six-month period., Results: There were significant changes in overall scores of knowledge of safe sex and STIs. Benefits of using SMS and squad leaders that acted as mentors in the study groups (p-value < 0.001**) were observed. The safe sex practices in the study group showed significant increase in condom use with risky partners such as sex workers and other men (p-value < 0.001**). Therefore, it is believe that conscripts can be mentors in promoting safe sex (p-value = 0.006*)., Conclusion: The presented program can genuinely increase knowledge and practice of safe sex among conscripts in the study group.

Objective: To determine health related quality of life (QoL) of patients diagnosed with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and cervical cancer compared QoL among stages of cancer and to study the association between QoL and patients' characteristics., Material and Method: The questionnaire elicited information and QoL using Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy General (FACT-G) questionnaire. The study population was patients with a diagnosis of one of the four FIGO stages of cervical cancer, Results: One hundred seventy two patients completed the present study. The adjusted mean scores QoL was 78.76. There were no significant differences between FIGO stages on the global QoL and subscale. The authors found negative association between age and physical wellbeing scores (p = 0.049) and a positive association between age and emotional wellbeing scores (p = 0.004). Lower educational attainment was associated with higher emotional wellbeing scores (p = 0.004)., Conclusion: For many patients, family, religion, or psycho-social support may be considered a necessity. The younger and better-educated groups may require more information and psycho-emotional support.

Objective: To develop an assessment tool of Thai menopause-specific quality of life in Surat Thani Province, Thailand., Material and Method: The present study divided research design into three phases. Phase I Concept clarification, a thorough study of related literature was conducted to search for the concept of menopause-specific quality of life and its existing instruments to guide developing instrument. Phase II Item development, in-depth interviews with 30 Thai menopausal women in Surat Thani was conducted and an initial pool of items relating to menopause-specific quality of life was generated to develop the instrument, then, tested with 399 menopausal women. Phase III psychometric test, the developed questionnaire was tested for validity and reliability with 402 menopausal women., Results: The Thai Menopause-Specific Quality of Life instrument was well developed with 63 items, internal consistency reliability coefficient obtained 0.952, comprised of three domains including physic-psychological well-being (51 items), sexual-socio-economic well-being (9 items) and vasomotor well-being (3 items)., Conclusion: The present study was directed to develop an effective instrument with integrity of psychometric property. This instrument was more meaningful to detect quality of life specific to Thai menopausal women.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the association between abnormal hepatocellular functions and abnormal fasting glucose level in the employees in a university hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. A cross-sectional data analysis was conducted among 2790 workers who were 35-60 years old and participated in both the annual fasting plasma glucose (FPG) examination and the baseline questionnaire survey during 2001-2005. The prevalence rates (95% confidence interval; CI) of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) were 10.4 (9.1-11.7) and 20.3 (17.0-23.9) percent respectively for women and men, while those of type 2 diabetes were 3.1 ( 2.4-3.9) and 6.5 (4.6-8.9) respectively. After controlling for conventional risk factors, only the alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level was significantly associated with increased abnormal FPG This association was particularly obvious for the DM. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that the type 2 diabetes and ALT association was also evident in the Thai population.

Objective: To evaluate the efficiency of quality control performance for a general x-ray machine between computed radiography (CR) and film method., Material and Method: CR performance as a quality control method for a general x-ray machine was compared to the film method. Two raters independently analyzed the result of quality control from both methods. Economic evaluation was performed by cost-minimization analysis. All data (result for quality control and cost) were collected from Phramongkutklao Hospital from August 2007 to January 2008., Result: Quality control performances of a general x-ray machine by using CR and film method were equivalent. Interobserver agreement for analysis of quality control measurements was almost perfect. Unit cost, test performance time, radiation dose for quality control by CR were less than the film method (p < 0.001)., Conclusion: The performances of quality control of a general x-ray machine done by the CR method are more efficient than the film method. Using the CR method for quality control performance of the general x-ray machines will save cost enormously.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) among Thai professional and office workers and to compare the prevalence with other populations., Material and Method: The authors conducted a cross-sectional study of 1,339 professional and office workers (535 men and 804 women) who participated in the annual health examinations at the Mobile Health Checkup Unit of King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand during the period of August through December 2001. MetS was defined using the modified NCEP ATP III criteria. Chi-square tests were used to evaluate differences in distribution of covariates for affected and unaffected patients., Results: The prevalence of MetS among Thai professional and office workers was 15.2% and approximately 3 times more common among men than women (25.8% vs. 8.2%). Men and women with MetS were older (p < 0.05) and were less well-educated (p < 0.05) than those without MetS. The three most common metabolic abnormalities in men were high blood pressure (45.0%), BMI > or = 25 kg/m2 (40.7%) and hypertriglyceridemia (38.7%). Among women, high blood pressure (22.8%), BMI > or = 25 kg/m2 (20.9%) and low HDL-Cholesterol (18.4%) were the most common metabolic abnormalities noted., Conclusion: The prevalence of MetS in this cohort of Thai professional and office workers was as high as those observed in developed countries. These findings emphasize the urgent need to develop strategies for the detection, treatment, and prevention of MetS. Such efforts will contribute to attenuating the incidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major health problem in developing countries. There are so many factors which influence the cure rate and one of them is compliance. However in developing countries like Thailand, there is little information about the factors that can predict the compliance within TB patients., Objectives: To study the level of compliance and associated factors among tuberculosis patients in Thailand., Design: A cross-sectional descriptive study., Setting: Three levels of health care facilities in the 4 regions of Thailand (Zonal TB Centers, Provincial Hospitals and District Hospitals), excluding Bangkok., Participants: A total of 487 adult newly diagnosed TB patients with positive sputum smear at the study location and they were interviewed by trained health personnel with structured questionnaires., Main Outcome Measures: Level of compliance classified into excellent (punctuality), good (missing < or =2 consecutive weeks) and poor (missing >2 consecutive weeks). The socio-economic variables were studied as the independent variables., Results: About 70% (342 out of 487)of the TB patients were males. Mean (SD) of age was 47.2 (16.65) years and ranged from 15 to 84 years. The excellent compliance rate of the TB patients was 65.7% (95% CI: 61.5-69.6%) while good and poor compliance were 22.8% and 11.5%, respectively. Using Chi-square test of association, the finding showed that the type of treatment (DOT and SS), gender, working, experience of contacting TB patient, perception in health status, attitude, knowledge and social support were significantly associated with the compliance (p < .05). Binary logistic regression (Excellent vs. Good and Poor) were used to adjust the confounding factors. Females were more likely to have excellent compliance than males (adjusted OR = 1.87, 95% CI: 1.17-2.99, p = .009). Patients having perception of fair health status was 2.26 times more to have excellent compliance (95% CI: 1.45-3.53, p < .001)., Conclusion: Compliance is one of the potential factors to increase the cure rate in TB patients. Finding the significant factors will pave the way to improve the effective treatment of tuberculosis.

Fast liver alkaline phosphatase isoenzyme was measured by cellulose acetate electrophoresis in the sera obtained from 84 patients with specific hepatobiliary diseases and 10 control subjects. The mean value of this isoenzyme in patients with malignant extrahepatic obstruction was 130.58 +/- 107.08 U/L, significantly higher than that of patients with benign extrahepatic obstruction (65.63 +/- 34.14 U/L), as well as patients with intrahepatic cholestasis and infiltrative liver cancers (65.31 +/- 38.11 U/L and 48.47 +/- 36.85 U/L, respectively). Furthermore, we could not detect this isoenzyme in normal individuals. When 100 U/L was used as a cut-off value to discriminate between patients with malignant extrahepatic obstruction and the remaining hepatobiliary disorders, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the test were 63 per cent, 84 per cent and 80 per cent, respectively. It is concluded that the fast liver isoenzyme could be a useful marker in diagnosis of malignant extrahepatic obstruction.